The
Democrats, obviously still mourning John Kerry’s embarrassing loss to George
W. Bush just two weeks prior, have drawn up a new game-plan in hopes that it
will help them challenge their purported rivals in elections to come.

Well,
it isn’t really a new plan, just a fresh spin on an old failing
strategy. The Democrats still believe, even after Kerry’s willful loss, that
the only way to beat the neocons is to outflank them to the right. Take on
their backward “values” and surpass their fanaticism.

The
saga began to unfold following Democratic Senate minority leader Tom
Daschle’s horrific defeat to Republican John Thume in the South Dakotan
Senate race on November 2. After Daschle’s loss, Democratic National
Committee chair, Terry McAuliffe, was on
the phone rallying support behind one of his favorite Senators -- Nevada’s
own, Harry Reid.

Reid,
an admitted friend of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, was being tapped for
the position well before Daschle’s defeat, and quickly gained enough support
to assure his appointment and upcoming confirmation. A conservative Mormon,
Reid, who was born and raised in Nevada, could just as well have ran as a
Republican when he chose to do so in 1982.

His
positions on trade, abortion, war, civil liberties, and health-care mirror
the Republicans almost identically.

In
fact, his adversaries adore him for his conservative propensities. Fellow
Mormon and right-wing Senator Orrin Hatch, a high-ranking Republican from
Utah, says, “We all respect Senator Reid.
He is one of the moderate voices around here who tries to get things to
work.”

Reid’s politics, like that of
George W. Bush, are greatly influenced by his religious philosophy. His
opposition to gay-marriage and abortion are certainly prejudiced by his
rigid Mormon principles. Reid, a gospel teacher at his local church-ward in
Washington DC, will become the highest elected Mormon in US history. And he
is sure to make the Latter Day Saints’ community quite proud.

NARAL, a pro-choice advocacy
group has awarded Reid a 29% report card. In other words Senator Reid has
voted against a woman’s right to choose 71% of the time he has been given
the chance. He voted “yes” on banning partial birth abortions as well as
“yes” on banning abortions on military bases. He also favors giving
personhood to fetuses, as he showed when he voted “yes” on criminalizing the
harm done to an unborn fetus during an assault crime.

Reid
also has few qualms with expanding and implementing the racist death
penalty. He voted in favor of rejecting racial statistics in death penalty
appeals, and voted “yes” on limiting the number of appeals allowed for
federal death-row inmates. And the list goes on.

So why
do the Democrats think Reid is the best man for the job?

"When
you look a presidential election where we lost in every age group except
one, I think it time to do some reassessment -- and that's one reason why
I'm glad Harry is there," Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California
told the New York Times on November 14. "I believe very strongly that
the voice of the moderates of our caucus ought to have some sway. I have
noticed in the past that all the gravitas has slid to the left. All one has
to do is look at the map to know that you can't win a presidential election
that way."

So the
Democrats believe the new face of their leadership in the Senate should be
that of an anti-choice, anti-gay religionist. Support for Reid to take over
the helm as minority leader is a clear illustration of the Democrats’
inability to offer alternatives. They simply believe that they can only win
elections by taking on the Republican “values.”

Even
former GOP leader Trent Lott sang his praise for the Senator: “Harry Reid is
out there finding a solution. I enjoy working with him very much.”

It is
difficult to gage where Read will even wage battle with the Republican
majority. Certainly we can rest assured that the 45 Democrats in the
Senate, with Reid as their director, will permit Bush and gang to run
rampant with every bit of legislation they desire -- including Supreme Court
appointments.

Sadly,
the Reid appointment is a sign of the direction the Democrats will continue
to shift as they attempt to build momentum for the 2006 congressional
elections.

Nevertheless, Democratic capitulation is nothing new.

Commenting on the Democrats’ rightward drift during the Democratic primary
race, AL Sharpton complained, "This whole centrist move, which I consider a
Right move, hasn't worked politically. Centrists keep saying we can't win
without going to the center. Well, they have been in charge of the party
since 1992. It's 11 years later and we have lost everything. We lost the
House in 1994 with Gingrich, and we failed to regain it in 1996, 1998, 2000,
and 2002. How do you lose five Super Bowls and not say there is something
wrong with this coach and this game plan? Aside from the fact that I don't
believe in what they are saying -- pro-death penalty, pro-business
deregulation, pro-NAFTA -- politically it hasn't even worked. They act as
though they are outsiders shooting at the inside. They are the insiders.
They have control of the party, and they have failed. They have put this
party on its deathbed."

May as
well start digging the graves now. The Democrats are committing suicide.